The Roman Question eBook

If I wonder at anything, it is that under the present
system such artists are to be found at Home as Tenerani
and Podesti, in statuary and painting; Castellani,
in gold-working; Calamatta and Mercuri, in engraving,
with some others. It is a melancholy truth, however,
that the majority of Roman artists are doomed, by
the absence of encouragement, to a monotonous and
humiliating round of taskwork and trade; occupied
half their time in re-copying copies, and the remainder
in recommending their goods to the foreign purchaser.

In truth, I had myself quitted Rome with no very favourable
idea of the middle class. A few distinguished
artists, a few advocates of talent and courage, some
able medical men, some wealthy and skilful farmers,
were insufficient, in my opinion, to constitute a middle
class. I regarded them as so many exceptions to
a rule. And as it is certain that there can be
no nation without a middle class, I dreaded lest I
should be forced to admit that there is no Italian
nation.

The middle class appeared to me to thrive no better
in the Mediterranean provinces than at Rome.
Half citizen, half clown, the people representing
it are plunged in a crass ignorance. Having just
sufficient means to live without working, they lounge
away their time in homes comfortless and half-furnished,
the very walls of which seem to reek with ennui.
Rumours of what is passing in Europe, which might
possibly rouse them from their torpor, are stopped
at the frontier. New ideas, which might somewhat
fertilize their minds, are intercepted by the Custom
House. If they read anything, it is the Almanack,
or by way of a higher order of literature, the Giornale
di Roma, wherein the daily rides of the Pope are
pompously chronicled. The existence of these
people consists, in short, of a round of eating, drinking,
sleeping, and reproducing their kind, until death
arrive.

But beyond the Apennines matters are far otherwise.
There, instead of the citizen descending to the level
of the peasant, it is the peasant who rises to that
of the citizen. Unremitting labour is continually
improving both the soil and man. A smuggling of
ideas which daily becomes more active, sets custom-houses
and customs officers at defiance. Patriotism
is stimulated and kept alive by the presence of the
Austrians. Common sense is outraged by the weight
of taxation. The different fractions of the middle
class—­advocates, physicians, merchants,
farmers, artists—­freely express among one
another their discontent and their hatred, their ideas
and their hopes. The Apennines, which form a
barrier between them and the Pope, bring them nearer
to Europe and liberty. I have never failed, after
conversing with one of the middle class in the Legations,
to inscribe in my tablets, There is an Italian
Nation!